Venus

A wall-painting at Stabiae, Italy. Stabiae, with Pompeii and Herculaneum, was the third of the cities destroyed by the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius in AD 79. The wall-painting probably depicts the goddess Venus in her aspect as goddess of the spring. Before she became identified with the Greek deity Aphrodite, the Roman Venus was the goddess of garden fertility, to whom the month of April was sacred.

In Roman mythology, the goddess of love and beauty, equivalent to the Greek Aphrodite. The patricians of Rome claimed descendance from her son, the Trojan prince Aeneas, and she was consequently venerated as the guardian of the Roman people. Venus was also worshipped as a goddess of military victory and patroness of spring.

A number of lavish temples were dedicated to her in Rome, particularly splendid examples being built by the emperors Caesar in 46 BC and Hadrian in AD 135.

Origin Venus was a long-established deity, and may originally have been a goddess of gardens. Her association with the Greek Aphrodite was apparent by the 3rd century BC, the worship of Venus Erycina being introduced from Sicily at the beginning of the second Punic War in 218 BC. Other titles under which she was worshipped at Rome were Obsequens, Postvorta, Genetrix, and Victrix.